Friday - day 3 (continued)

Josh, the Mackinac Island Dock Porter for the Chippewa Hotel met our ferry, and after confirming he had the correct bag, transported it to the Hotel. We walked the two blocks up the main street to the hotel. It was about 11:30AM and (unsurprisingly) our room was not yet ready. They took our cell phone number to call when the room was ready and we left our carry on bags at the hotel and went out to explore.

We started with lunch at the Yankee Rebel Tavern. I hadn't been at this bar & grill for many years, but a cousin works at the tavern in the summer and we wanted to give it a try. He hadn't yet arrived on the Island for the summer, but we were still treated very well. 

Our meal started with whitefish bites, which were 5 larger pieces, about the size of perch filets. Linda had a panini which was just OK, but I had the prime rib melt. The prime rib sandwich was a little pricey at $13.50 with kettle chips or fries, but was very good. Just typing this, I am getting hungry for another one.

Since we hadn't heard from the Chippewa Hotel, when we finished lunch we walked up to Market Street, where we stopped at the Stuart House City Museum. It is in one of several buildings which were the center of John Jacob Astor's Great Lakes fur trade in the 1820s. Today they house the Mackinac Island city hall & community building, fire hall, courthouse, police department, and post office, in addition to this one which houses the museum.

Admission to the museum is by donation. My favorite part of the museum was the old photographs of Mackinac Island, but the most unique part is the many models of Island buildings.

We continued up Market Street toward Fort Mackinac, but the hotel called that our room was ready and we made our way two blocks back to the hotel.

The Chippewa Hotel Waterfront was built in 1902. The hotel presently has 31 guest rooms and 26 luxury suites (all facing the water), plus two bar and grills. Our suite was on the second floor at the end, at the far left in the photo below. It was one of the nicest suites we have ever stayed at. It was very comfortable with the bedroom and sitting areas more separate from each other than in many suites.

We settled in and I took a break from the vacation to handle some work by computer. We were just about to leave, when the desk clerk called to ask if this was a good time to have our luggage brought up. We didn't realize that it wouldn't be right away and were a little impatient by the time that they radioed Josh and he came up with our bag.